The national CAP Strategic Plan for Austria

Reference text: National Strategy Plan 2023
Photo: BML

Here you will find general information on the national CAP strategy plan for the subsidisation period 2023 to 2027 and on the process of its preparation in Austria.

On 13 September 2022 the European Commission approved the Austrian Strategic Plan which will implement the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) in Austria in the coming years.

HinweisHinweis

More detailed information about the implementation of interventions in the framework of Austria’s CAP Strategic Plan 2023–2027 is available under the heading Funding information and on the AMA information portal on the sector measures and RD measures.

In the subsidisation period 2023 to 2027 the national CAP Strategic Plan replaces the former rural development programmes (in Austria: Österreichisches Programm für ländliche Entwicklung 2014–2020, Austrian Rural Development Programme 2014 - 2020) as a subsidisation instrument for rural areas.

As the period from 2014 to 2020 was extended by two transitional years, national implementation of the CAP Strategic Plan starts from 2023. In this context, there will be a few innovations:

In order to ensure that the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) is strengthened and its coordination is improved in Europe, both pillars of the CAP will in the future be implemented jointly in a national Strategic Plan: This includes the direct payments and market measures of the 1st pillar as well as the rural development measures of the 2nd pillar of the CAP.

First-pillar measures will, as before, be financed at 100% by EU funds from the European Agricultural Guarantee Fund (EAGF), while in the second pillar the principle of co-financing will continue to apply: This means that second-pillar measures will be covered at about 50 % by EU money from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) and at about 50 % by national funds (federal and provincial).

Following the adoption of the Multi-annual Financial Framework (MFF) by the Council and the European Parliament in December 2020, a total amount of approx. 386.6 billion euros is available for the CAP for the period from 2021 to 2027 in the European Union. This amount is allocated to the individual Member States and, for Austria, means a substantial plus for the national CAP implementation compared to the previous period. Key aspects of the MFF are expenditure targets for climate and biodiversity measures: The contribution to combating climate change is to account for at least 30 % of the total budget; agricultural policy shall contribute at least 40 % of the CAP budget to the fulfilment of this target.

Programming

Member States prepared their national Strategic Plans based on a SWOT analysis (analysis of strengths/ weaknesses/ opportunities/ risks) and an analysis of needs and were approved by the European Commission (EC) for a period of five years (2023 - 2027) - shorter than usual due to the transitional period.

The EU wants to shift the focus more strongly on results-orientation and higher ambitions for the environment in the future. The new CAP post 2020 is to pursue the following specific objectives set out in Article 6 of the CAP Strategic Plans Regulation (EU) 2021/2115):

  1. to support viable farm income and resilience of the agricultural sector across the Union in order to enhance food security;
  2. to enhance market orientation and increase competitiveness, including greater focus on research, technology and digitalisation;
  3. to improve the farmers' position in the value chain;
  4. to contribute to climate change mitigation and to adaptation to climate change, as well as to promote sustainable energy;
  5. to foster sustainable development and efficient management of natural resources such as water, soil and air;
  6. to contribute to the protection of biodiversity, enhance ecosystem services and preserve habitats and landscapes;
  7. to attract and sustain young farmers and new farmers and facilitate business development in rural areas;
  8. to promote employment, growth, social inclusion and local development in rural areas, including bio-economy and sustainable forestry;
  9. to improve the response of EU agriculture to societal demands on food and health - including safe, nutritious and sustainable food - and to improve animal welfare.

Fostering knowledge, innovation and digitalisation in agriculture and in rural areas is a cross-cutting objective.

In connection with the preparation of the national Strategic Plan for Austria the continuity in the orientation of the programme is to be ensured, taking into account the specific objectives. These include the preservation of vital rural areas and ensuring an area-wide, farm-based and environmentally responsible agricultural system.

The design of the national Strategic Plan was accompanied by a broad participation process which was launched in Vienna on 13 May 2019. Key issues of the CAP Strategic Plan were subject to public consultation, among them the drafts on the SWOT analysis and the needs analysis as well as the technical drafts of the interventions.

By bundling the two pillars of the CAP in a joint strategic plan, the EAFRD will no longer be part of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI Funds) in the future, as it was before.